After months of negotiations, Madison and the union representing Madison Metro bus drivers came up with a new three-year contract that would better distribute overtime hours.
Mick Rusch of Metro Transit said the old contract had a complicated process for distributing work assignments to bus drivers. Part of the old contract included a process in which drivers were able to ""pick work"" where overtime hours would result.
""In this new contract, the rules by which drivers can pick work and the process by how we distribute the work has been simplified,"" Rusch said.
The new process will allow work assignments to fall further down the ranks to be picked by drivers with less seniority who otherwise would not get overtime work.
Rusch said there is also a new procedure in place under the disciplinary process that help spread the overtime hours more evenly. In the new contract, if a driver is suspended for disciplinary reasons—such as being late to work—that driver could continue to work for the day.
According to Rusch, in the old contract, the suspended driver would not have been allowed to work for the day and someone else would work the assigned shift on overtime pay.
The contract will be up for approval at the Common Council meeting Tuesday.
